Over the next week and a half, public schools and universities will be starting the fall semester.

A critical component to student success are teachers and the trust parents/community have in the profession. In New Mexico, the profession has been under fire as a result of various discussions about ways to track student and teacher performance.

According to the 2017 Garrity Perception Survey, 70 percent of New Mexico residents trust teachers.

Overall, females (73 percent) and residents who identify as Hispanic (73 percent) are more trusting of teachers than males (68 percent) and Anglos 69 percent).

While many age groups and household income groups trust teachers, there are some groups below the state average.  Residents between the ages of 50 – 64 and those with a household income higher than $60,000 trust teachers but fall below the state average of 70 percent.

Residents living in North Central New Mexico have a higher level of trust (76 percent) than residents in the Northwest (63 percent) and Eastern parts of the state (63 percent).  Seventy three percent of Albuquerque area residents and 66 percent of Las Cruces area residents trust teachers.

A glaring area, in need of improvement, are the number of residents who are lukewarm about the profession.  Statewide, a little more than two out of ten residents neither trust of district teachers.  If school districts, teachers unions and the Public Education Department hope to win public support for various initiatives the respective groups will need to claim the middle ground in addition to support in other key sectors.

The Garrity Perception Survey will be taking a closer look at the favorability of both institutions in the near future.

The Garrity Group commissioned Albuquerque-based Research & Polling to conduct the Garrity Perception Survey from February 8-14, 2017. A total of 403 adult New Mexico residents were interviewed by telephone (both landlines and cell phones), providing a 95 percent level of confidence. For more information and analysis – or to request a copy of the Garrity Perception Survey 2017 – visit www.garrityperceptionsurvey.com.